Cubs Select Gage Workman from Tigers in Rule 5 Draft
The Cubs had the 16th pick in the MLB phase of Wednesday’s Rule 5 Draft and they made a fairly interesting choice in light of all the rumors going around. They selected Gage Workman from the Tigers, a 25-year-old third baseman who’s spent most of the last three seasons at Double-A. He hit 18 homers with a 140 wRC+ this past season while lowering his strikeout rate to 27.5% after it had hovered around 40% in two previous seasons.
As a reminder, here’s how this whole thing works:
Not every club will make a selection, but those that do pick a player must pay $100,000 to the club from which said player was selected. Rule 5 Draft picks are assigned directly to the drafting club’s 26-man roster and must be placed on outright waivers in order to be removed from the 26-man roster in the subsequent season. Should the player clear waivers, he must be offered back to his previous team for $50,000 and can be outrighted to the Minors only if his original club does not wish to reacquire him. A Rule 5 Draft pick can be placed on the Major League injured list, but he must be active for a minimum of 90 days to avoid being subject to the aforementioned roster restrictions in the next campaign.
This tracks with the reports that the Cubs are pushing for a Kyle Tucker trade that could include third baseman Isaac Paredes. That, combined with the possibility that Nico Hoerner is expected to miss some time at the start of the season and could also be traded away, means the Cubs need more depth at the hot corner while Matt Shaw plays second base. I don’t really see Workman serving as more than a stopgap or fallback, but this move has very little risk.